In this new day and age of the novel coronavirus- 19 pandemic, millions have been forced into self-quarantine, leaving many with a bit more time in their schedules. Millions are spending a lot of time inside their home offices, and living spaces and on their computers instead of going to offices. While everyone was worried about what to do with themselves, news articles came out suggesting this as the perfect opportunity for people to learn a new skill. Learning a new language or two was at the top of all of these lists along with baking! According to Business Insider, Duolingo saw a massive spike in French subscribers with a 148% increase globally with new sign-ups. 

Physiological studies have discovered that speaking two or more languages is a great asset to the cognitive process. The brains of bilingual people function differently than single language speakers, and these differences serve several mental benefits. Speaking a foreign language greatly improves the functionality of your brain by challenging it to recognise, negotiate meaning, and communicate in different language systems. This skill amps up your ability to negotiate meaning in other problem-solving tasks as well. Furthermore, students who study foreign languages often score higher grades on standardised tests than their monolingual peers, particularly in the categories of maths, reading, and vocabulary.

Multilingual people, especially younger people, are savvier at alternating between two systems of speech, writing, and structure. According to a study from the Pennsylvania State University, this “juggling” skill makes them good multitaskers, because they can smoothly go between different structures. In one study, participants used a driving simulator while doing separate, distracting tasks at the same time. The research found that people who spoke more than one language made fewer errors in their driving. If being able to multitask easier isn’t enough, consider this, that learning a language involves memorising rules and vocabulary, which helps strengthen the overall brain. Memorising lists or sequences and retaining names and directions are all things that bilingual people are better at. 

Another study conducted this time at  Spain’s University of Pompeu Fabra revealed that polyglot people are better at observing their surroundings. They are more adept at focusing on relevant information and editing out the irrelevant. They’re also better at spotting misleading information. Is it any wonder that Sherlock Holmes was a Polyglot. Other famous polyglots are; Shakira, Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Portman, Pope Francis, Jodie Foster, Thomas Jefferson,  and J.R.R Tolkien to name a few. 

Why are online French lessons so popular? For starters, over 300 million people speak this romantic and poetic language over the span of five continents. Next to English, French is the most widely learned foreign language and the fifth most widely spoken language in the world. This is an important factor when considering which language to choose to study, as its usability is huge. Not only is it one of the most popular but it is also one of the only languages alongside English, that is taught in every single country in the world. 

Globalization has allowed the world to become more deeply interconnected in some ways. The consequences of this relatively new economic shift are that more and more companies are trading with foreign countries, and with countries that don’t necessarily speak the same language. 

At the forefront of online language lessons is Speakedia. At Speakedia, certified teachers are giving the highest calibre of lessons to both children corporations, and adult learners in 1- on 1 private lessons scenarios or groups, depending on the student’s style of learning. Learning with Speakedia means gaining a competitive edge when working in the international job market, or when seeking out cultural experiences gained through travel, or to just have fun with something new, and something for higher education. At Speakdedia, certified and fully bilingual teachers have worked with hundreds of adult students and children from grades 1 – 12, gaining the school 5 out of 5 stars across major review sites. 

Why learning French in Canada is very important.

There are many important factors when choosing which language to learn when in Canada, whether the student has lived here their whole life and wants to learn a new language, or they are a fresh citizen, a refugee, or perhaps just a visitor choosing to engulf themselves in learning while travelling. Choosing to learn a language while in one of the most friendly and prosperous countries in the world will open many doors both career-wise as well as socially. Multilinguals might have important labour market advantages over monolingual individuals as multilingual people can carry out duties that monolinguals cannot, such as interacting with clients who only speak a minority language. A study in Switzerland has found that multilingualism is positively correlated with an individual’s salary, the productivity of firms, and the gross domestic production (GDP). A study in the United States by Agirdag found that bilingualism has substantial economic benefits as bilingual persons were found to have around $3,000 per year more salary than monolinguals.

It is no surprise that Canada welcomes many diverse people to the huge landscape. Canadians are notorious for being polite and accepting of everyone. However, history shows us that the two official languages are English and French. This is known as “Official bilingualism” and it is a law that mandates that the federal government conduct its business in both official languages and provide services in both as well. Furthermore, this law encourages and mandates that both provinces, and the territories as well as some municipalities conduct themselves in both official languages and provide their services in the two as well. Lastly, food products must be labelled in both languages as well. So, to learn French while in Canada means the student can live, converse, and conduct business and interactions in many provinces where both languages are spoken. For example, Quebec, which is one of Canada’s largest provinces, has French as the only official language since 1974, with the majority of its population French-speaking and its minority English. Whereas, Manitoba’s unique history, has a complex bilingual profile combining that of a province with a “small official-language minority and one with constitutional protection of said minority”. Then, there is New Brunswick, which out of Canada’s ten provinces is the only one to have voluntarily chosen to become officially bilingual. So there you have it, learning French in Canada is not mandatory unless you are planning to live in Quebec but, having French is a major asset and would only elevate the student’s lifestyle, choices and path. 

Learn French for Free

We at Speakedia believe that the best way to gain a language education is to commit to it. Free sources and apps are not enough on their own. We like to work in conjunction with the apps but also like to take it a step further towards the time and commitment it takes to learn a new language like French. These sources help our students accelerate their learning skills

Duolingo.com, Thefrenchexperiment.com, Books, and Study groups, but we highly suggest that these be met with professional tutors and lessons through Speakedia. By choosing classes, and package style our students are essentially taking their learning to the highest degree of commitment. With a custom-made curriculum to suit the needs of each student, learning French has never felt more personal and fun. By pairing the fun use of Apps as well as solidifying the learning experience with a more serious approach, the student can be sure that their education is being taken seriously. By taking a more committed approach to learning by using both self-applied studies as well as curriculum-based studies with Speakedia, the immersed student can absorb more information instead of just having patchy pieces of it. 

Self-lead apps vs French tutors

Many eager people have started using self-lead apps such as Duolingo, and while this and other apps are great at helping to facilitate the learning process, these apps are lacking in essential learning elements. For example in French Duolingo, the lessons are set up in chapter-like levels with Basics 1, Greetings, Basics 2, People, Travel and so on. In the Basics 1 level there are often about 4 stages to pass where repeating words into the microphone and a red or green prompt allows you to go onto the next step. This is followed by sentence structuring where the student chooses words in a multiple-choice set up, in order to construct the sentence. This is all great but students might have questions like “How was my pronunciation incorrect and why is this word used and not that word”? These things are explained in a secondary internal link within the Duolingo app but in an online French lesson, the teacher would be able to pick up straight away where the student went wrong, help correct it and explain the whys and hows to make it correct. Since the primary Duolingo lessons are almost never starting with the basics such as the alphabet, counting numbers or basic conversations learners often complain of the feeling of being thrown into the deep end to swim and learn on their own. Furthermore, Duolingo operates as a reward-based education making it feel more game-like than educational. Self- lead students are not given guidance by tutors or professionals regarding why a sentence is built this way and not that way, or why one word is used and not a different word. Instead, they are given on-site forums to discuss the whys, hows, dos and don’t with other students, often confusing the learner even more.  This lack of professional guidance can be overwhelming to a beginner who is struggling with the basics. People starting out need to have a step-by-step curriculum, professional guidance and constructive feedback in order to garner any momentum.  With online French teachers, students will be aided with pronunciation, inflection, repetition, conversation and so much more.  

Curriculum

At Speakedia, the online French class curriculums are designed for the student level with the ability to also have the training and official tests or DELF, TEF, TEFAQ. With students ranging from elementary school, high school, university, corporate and everyday adult learning. 

The younger levels courses start from Grade 1 going up to Grade 12. The online tutoring program enhances your child’s skills set by offering private classes, or classes with a maximum of four students in it. The children come face to face with French native-speaking teachers through Zoom or Skype. The classes focus on the Ontario curriculum standards. As each new student can get a free assessment from us by booking an appointment, our placement strategies work very well in giving the learner the exact level and tempo they need to succeed. 

Learning in School is Often Not Enough

Maybe your child has taken a French language course in school or is currently taking one and then in their social life or at home, they are reverting back to English. Often learning in school is not enough as it is only one-quarter of the day. The student committed to learning French should also consider taking online French classes with the aid of a tutor to widen their knowledge and to accelerate the process. Extracurricular activities are not new but in this new pandemic time, many people are going the route of online classes in order to stay safe and quarantine. Taking an online French course in Canada as an extracurricular is an amazing way to stay safe but also to learn french for free. We at Speakedia believe that online French classes for both kids and adults are the way of the future as more and more classes go online for the safety and convenience of its participants. Imagine yourself or your child with the ability to comprehend, speak and read French in an independent setting with one or more people. Imagine being able to converse about various topics and the confidence that it can bring to the avid learner. Let’s look deeper into the benefits of practising one’s multilingual skills. Compared to their monolingual peers, bilingual children seem to be at an advantage in non-linguistic tasks related to executive and attentional control. For instance, they are able to identify relevant visual information and ignore irrelevant perceptual information better than monolingual children. Bilinguals employ these executive and attentional processes daily as they need to quickly be able to select the correct vocabulary and grammar in context. Using online French tutoring methods will increase an adult or child’s ability to employ quick thinking and verbal organization.

While learning online students can hone more rational decision-making skills too!! All languages contain nuance and subtle implications in their vocabulary, and these biases can subconsciously influence your judgment. Bilinguals are more confident with their choices after thinking it over in the second or third language and seeing whether their initial conclusions still hold.  

Online vs In-person

Having a French tutor online is the obvious safe choice in 2020. But we at Speakedia see it as the main choice beyond the pandemic. The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children in 186 countries are out of the classroom. With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the world, some are curious whether the adoption of online learning will continue to persist post-pandemic, and how such a shift would impact the worldwide education market. As a result, education has shifted drastically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms. Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time, meaning the changes coronavirus have caused might be here to stay. Pre COVID-19, there was already a rise and adoption in education technology, with global educational technology investments reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019 and the overall market for online education projected to reach $350 Billion by 2025. Whether it is language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools, or online learning software, there has been a significant surge in usage since COVID-19.

Some people are already touting the benefits: Dr. Amjad, a Professor at The University of Jordan who has been using Lark to teach his students says, “It has changed the way of teaching. It enables me to reach out to my students more efficiently and effectively through chat groups, video meetings, voting and also document sharing, especially during this pandemic. My students also find it is easier to communicate on Lark. I will stick to Lark even after coronavirus, I believe traditional offline learning and e-learning can go hand in hand.”

Only time will tell if online learning is as effective as in-person however, some research shows that on average, students retain 25-60% more material when learning online compared to only 8-10% in a classroom. This is mostly due to the students being able to learn faster online; e-learning requires 40-60% less time to learn than in a traditional classroom setting because students can learn at their own pace, going back and re-reading, skipping, or accelerating through concepts as they choose. Since the virus outbreak forced the educational institutes to adopt online classes, there is a considerable improvement in the attendance of students. Students no longer need to travel long distances for classes, today’s tech-savvy and pro-digital generation are loving the concept of online classes. There is a significant improvement in participation and interaction because of these factors. 

 

Most people will probably eventually go back to school and work and will not have as much time as they have had since March to dedicate to extracurriculars. Therefore, the online platform is where people will head once their school and workday are over to continue where school stops. Learning online in smaller classrooms means more attention is paid to each student’s needs. Obviously, as each student gets more focused attention on them, they feel special and this empowers them to try and gain that special feeling again and again.  

Covid

During this Coronavirus-19 pandemic, many children and adults of those children do not feel safe sending their loved ones out into the world quite yet. Adults are also choosing a more homebody lifestyle for themselves so as to not potentially expose any harmful viruses to their families. Working and studying online is the safest and best choice for so many privileged people. If people have the ability to work and study from home then they should. This is the safest way to continue living life while stimulating the brain. 

Within Canada, many classrooms have created social distancing bubbles within the school system in order to slow down and thwart any contamination. They are doing this by limiting class sizes too small fractions of what they were before. They also stagger recess and outdoor activity in order to properly social distance and during lunch students must remain in the classrooms. Because of the pandemic, people have chosen not to send their children back to school and have chosen to home school them or to do classes online. This has led to children falling behind in learning because of the necessity of administration and teachers needing to pivot strategies in order to bring the live classroom into the virtual one. The pressures of the workload on teachers and administrators who are creating their own curriculums are immense and the anxiety is palpable. Doing the online French classes with a Native French speaker in Canada means that students will no longer fall behind. Everyone can be more relaxed in their own safe environments without masks, without the fear of contamination. Once these stresses are moved away the real learning can begin. 

Affordability

Taking online classes for kids or online classes for adults with Speakedia is an affordable choice compared to other companies. For group lessons: which is up to four students the lessons start at $25 per hour. The duo lessons : for two students in the online classroom starts at $30. Whereas the private lessons: with the one on one tutoring starts at $40 per hour. 

We see being bilingual in Canada as more of an investment than an expense as it opens doors to the more bilingual provinces, Europe, and many other countries that have French as the majority language. The ability to have a human exchange has no price tag because whenever two people meet, negotiations occur. If they want to express solidarity and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in their behaviour. If speakers wish to express distance towards or even dislike the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and differences are sought. At Speakedia we offer a free consultation to help aid in choosing the right package for you.

Taking Classes as an immigrant

Now more than ever being bilingual or multilingual can only be an asset in this era of ever-changing economies, with expanding globalisation, international crossovers, travel, labelling and media. For many people becoming a citizen of Canada means learning and memorising the country’s history while gaining sponsorships and going through a lot of steps to become a part of it. For many immigrants coming to Canada taking English classes is a necessary choice for adaptation, as if taking French classes. If immigrants arrive with jobs they can transfer from their countries, often the new job will require certification, workshop upgrades with Canadian standards. Improving upon one’s own skills is always a good idea. Gaining a new skill set, such as learning French is an even better idea because studying a foreign language encourages respect for other peoples: it fosters an understanding of the interrelation of language, human nature and how language relates to much of the human experience. Foreign languages can expand one’s view of the world, liberalize one’s experiences, and make one more tolerant, flexible and understanding.

To just have confidence when moving to Canada is a major step that learning French can help with. People will think that the immigrant that has recently moved here has been here longer than they have. Lastly, learning French as a new immigrant to Canada can vastly improve English language skills as well as their own home country language. Learning a foreign language draws your focus to the mechanics of language: grammar, conjugations, and sentence structure. This creates an awareness of language, and the ways it can be structured and used. These skills can make you a more effective communicator as well as a sharper editor and writer. Language speakers also develop a better ear for listening, since they’re skilled at distinguishing meaning from discrete sounds. Becoming proficient in the French language as a new immigrant to Canada is a remarkable move as it shows dedication, education, and ambition. These are all key things employers and others would be looking for.

 

Immigrants to Canada can take a free french language assessment here https://www.clb-osa.ca/.

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Speakedia offers free assessments to determine where a student is with their comprehension and to discuss the curriculum they would like to follow.

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